Lansing — The House Judiciary Committee touched off a new effort to legalize dispensaries and edible forms of cannabis for medical marijuana patients Tuesday, sending three new bills to the House floor for consideration.

The bills, containing tighter rules than in failed 2014 proposals and an 8-percent excise tax on gross retail income of provisioning centers, is a compromise plan designed to overcome law enforcement opposition.

A voter-approved medical marijuana law that took effect in 2008 doesn’t specifically mention dispensaries or edible marijuana products, whose legality has been clouded by Michigan Supreme Court and appeals court rulings in recent years. Lawmakers are trying to pass legislation that clarifies the law. Rep. Mike Callton, who negotiated the compromises, called his main legislation “a bill we all can live with.” Callton, R-Nashville, told the committee the 8 percent tax and a mandatory system for tracking all forms of pot — from production to consumption — are key new provisions. Those proposals drew objections from advocates for less-onerous regulations as well as from Democratic Rep. Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor, a committee member who tried unsuccessfully to have them removed from the bills.

Irwin argued making medical marijuana purchases too burdensome or costly would increase the chances some would be diverted illegally to non-medical users.

“It will drive people to the black market,” added Frank James, who runs a Gaylord nutrition supplement and natural health store that also offers marijuana flowers. “People who come into our dispensary need a place to go other than the streets,” James told the committee.

Ken and Alice Szymoniak, of the tiny Presque Isle County town of Millersburg, told the committee that technically illegal cannabis oil has given Alice back a normal life. Ken Syzmoniak, a car dealer, said they tried marijuana after years of desperation.

Alice, who contracted fibromyalgia while recovering from a severe 1998 vehicle crash they were in, had such intense pain that for years they were lucky to be able to even spend an hour having a meal at a restaurant, Ken Szymoniak said.

She’s now pain-free, off prescription opiates and can engage in normal activities, including jet skiing with their grandchildren, the couple said.

“It was our only way of surviving,” Ken Szymoniak said. “It absolutely changed our life. We’re starting to travel again.” He said he became a state-licensed caregiver for four medical marijuana patients to offset the cost of growing the plants he needs for his wife. “I don’t understand everything that’s in the bills,” he said, “but I support making (cannabis) oils legal.”

The proposed 8 percent excise tax would be in addition to Michigan’s 6 percent sales tax, also collected on cannabis items. Its revenues would offset regulatory and law enforcement costs involved with dispensaries and new medical marijuana products.

Provisions of the bill package also call for a state Medical Marijuana Licensing Board to oversee the new rules. There would be five kinds of state licensees — grower, processor, provisioning center, secure transporter and safety compliance facility.

Chances the bills will pass are uncertain, but more promising than a year ago.

“Too soon to say at this point, as not everyone has had a chance to review them yet,” said Gideon D’Assandro, spokesman for House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mount Pleasant. “But I think most people realize there are problems with the recent law that need to be fixed.”

Amber McCann, press secretary for Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, said the GOP majority will decide its fate in caucus discussions. “At this point there is not a push within the caucus for this issue,” she added.

Callton said the bills would need a simple majority vote to pass in each chamber because they aren’t amending the 2008 medical marijuana act.

Meanwhile, two groups are circulating petitions to initiate a new state law that would legalize marijuana for nonmedical, personal use. The measures would go on the November 2016 ballot if enough signatures are gathered and the Legislature doesn’t act on the proposals.

MASON CITY, Iowa – The discussion of medical marijuana was at the forefront of legislative sessions last year in Iowa. Within the state they have approved the usage of medical marijuana, but not a way to obtain the medicine.

On Saturday, State Rep. Sharon Steckman, (D) Mason City, and State Sen. Amanda Ragan (D) Mason City, hosted a legislative forum at the Mason City Public Library. One of the main topics covered during the morning was the discussion of making amendments to the medical marijuana bill that passed in 2014.

Three north Iowa women used the forum as a platform to educate the public about the need to amend and recreate a cannabis oil law in the Hawkeye state. “The laws we have now aren’t sufficient,” says Mason City resident Amber Lenius.

Amber tells us she suffers from a condition that causes her chronic and excruciating pain throughout her body. Claudia Tillman of Forest City was also present at the forum talking about her daughter who deals with symptoms and side effects from Ulcerative Colitis on a daily basis. Finally, Mason City resident Cassie Helland spoke about her young son who suffers from regular seizures because of his epilepsy.

“The law that passed last year said that we could legally have it,” explains Helland, “but there’s no way that we could legally get it.” She says this is just one of the many roadblocks for the bill, and that another issue is not including other types of conditions that could benefit from the plant.

Sen. Ragan says that because the legislation was so new for the state, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle aired on the side of caution and wrote the law in a very conservative manner. “When you make a first step you have to do it with a lot of restrictions on and you need to make sure that you’re not making bad choices,” she explains, “but, we heard from a lot of folks today that [the law] really didn’t make much of a difference to them, and they gave us some suggestions and encouraged us to more research.”

However, more research means more time that the bill won’t be ironed out in a way these women would like to see. Now, they’re left to think outside of the box, and even the state. “At this point, I mean, if something doesn’t happen, we may have to move,” says Helland.

“It would mean uprooting myself, my husband, and my six-year-old daughter, and my two-year-old daughter, from our entire family, to a place that we don’t know, just so that I could have a chance to try something that might help my quality-of-life,” explains Lenius.

Session reconvenes on Monday in Des Moines and as of right now, no changes have been made to the law.

For the marijuana legalization movement, 2014 ends the way it began: with legal changes that showcase the movement’s momentum alongside its problems.

Tucked into the 1,603-page year-end spending bill Congress released Tuesday night were a pair of provisions that affect proponents of cannabis reform. Together they form a metaphor for the politics of legal cannabis—an issue that made major bipartisan strides this year, but whose progress is hampered by a tangle of local, state and federal statutes that have sown confusion and produced contradictory justice.

First the good news for reformers: the proposed budget would prohibit law enforcement officials from using federal funds to prosecute patients or legal dispensaries in the 32 states, plus the District of Columbia, that passed some form of medical-marijuana legalization. The provision was crafted by a bipartisan group of representatives and passed the Republican-controlled House in May for the first time in seven tries. If passed into law, it would mark a milestone for the movement, restricting raids against dispensaries and inoculating patients from being punished for an activity that is legal where they live but in violation of federal law.

“The enactment of this legislation will mark the first time in decades that the federal government has curtailed its oppressive prohibition of marijuana, and has instead taken an approach to respect the many states that have permitted the use of medical marijuana to some degree,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said in a statement to TIME. The California Republican’s work on the issue reflects the strange coalition that has sprung up to support cannabis reform as the GOP’s libertarian wing gains steam and voters’ views evolve.

At the same time, the House chose to overrule Washington, D.C., on the issue. Last month voters in the District chose to liberalize its marijuana laws, passing an initiative that legalized the possession, consumption and cultivation of recreational marijuana. The move, which was supported by about 70% of the capital’s voters, paved the way for D.C. to follow in the footsteps of Colorado and Washington State by establishing a tax-and-regulatory structure for cannabis sales in 2015.

By Greg Bluestein
Medical marijuana won’t be legalized in Georgia any time soon. But Gov. Nathan Deal outlined two plans to begin moving that way ahead of next year’s legislative session.
The first option would involve the expanded use of clinical trials for children with epileptic disorders through a private drugmaker, GW Pharmaceuticals, and Georgia Regents University. The second would bring a state clinical trial led by Georgia Regents using cannabis oil obtained from federal regulators in Mississippi.
Deal’s aides have been working with federal regulators for weeks after medical marijuana legislation failed to pass amid GOP infighting. You can find the backstory here, but Deal said he was confident from conversations with the federal Food and Drug Administration that both routes would be both legal and safe.
The governor also announced the start of a pilot program to study the privatization of Georgia’s foster care system. The program involves a limited study in two Georgia regions.
It’s part of a larger strategy of taking executive action where lawmakers failed, and the governor quipped that he was doing lawmakers a favor.
“I’m taking it out of their hands by acting now,” he said, adding: “I don’t think there’s jealousy over who gets credit. I just don’t think we need to wait until the next legislative session to get this done.”
Critics see an election-year conversion. The campaign of Democrat Jason Carter, his party’s nominee for governor, panned Deal for not more aggressively backing the plan during the session.
“It’s not leadership to wait around for election years to make token gestures,” said Carter spokesman Bryan Thomas.

Melanie Dreher, RN, PhD has studied the Cannabis users of rural Jamaica for more than 30 years. Dreher and her team set out to identify the neurobehavioral effects of prenatal marijuana exposure on neonates and reported their findings in the Journal of Pediatrics in an article published February 1994. They compared the babies of moms who used Cannabis during pregnancy with those who didn’t. Their study compared the infants using standardized testing at three days old and at one month of age.

At the three-day mark there were no significant differences shown between the two groups. At one month, however, the Cannabis exposed babies scored higher in areas of alertness, irritability and self-regulation and were judged to be more subjectively rewarding for caregivers, had better physiological stability and required less examiner facilitation to reach goals.

Interestingly, at four weeks old, infants born to Cannabis-using mothers had better scores on autonomic stability. These are the basic functions of the body such as blood pressure and breathing rates. These mothers likely did not cease their use after pregnancy, but they were likely breastfeeding.

There are A LOT of opinions and controversy when it comes to marijuana during pregnancy, post and during breast-feeding….and I want to shed light on the controversial subject.

A lot of us aren’t aware that cannabinoids , like those found in marijuana, occur naturally in human breast milk. That fact alone should be astonishing.

Cell membranes in the body are naturally equipped with these receptors which; when activated by cannabinoids and other various nutritive substances, protect cells against viruses, harmful bacteria and more!

It is found to be vital for proper human development. There are so many other facts and points made in this article! Go read it! Awareness is everything!

Below a beautiful family portrait that we found of Norml reform activist Diane Fornbacher

“Let me be clear – I do not want my kids to use or abuse cannabis. But I certainly don’t want them going to jail or losing their chances at a college education if they end up getting caught with a joint. Prisons do not protect children, parents do. By legalizing marijuana we can begin to have more truthful conversations with our kids and teens about using it.”

Diane Fornbacher has been a cannabis law reform activist for 15 years. She has worked with some of the top reform organizations (NORML, Drug Policy Alliance, Americans for Safe Access, The November Coalition, Vote Hemp). Fornbacher is the current Vice Chair of the NORML Women’s Alliance and serves on the board of The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey (CMMNJ). When she isn’t working to change the cannabis laws she enjoys photography, writing poetry being a mother and performing spoken word with local bands. source

There isn’t much when it comes to literature on the subject, however we did find this book

GPEN POOL PARTY
TWO BUNCH PALMS
2013 – COACHELLA
All photos taken by Christina V!

The Gpen party was so much fun! I look forward to 2014! Below are some fun photos of the festivities at the lovely Two Bunch Palms Spa and Resort. (Fun fact: I used to work there ‘back in the day’ it was so fun to talk to some old coworkers and.. Well.. They said they always knew I was a “stoner”LOL)